Wichita, Kansas — Two abortionists who planned to set up separate abortion businesses in Wichita have both agreed not to do abortions at this time.

Operation Rescue worked behind the scenes to insure that Greg Linhardt and Mila Means dropped plans to bring abortions back to Wichita, one of the largest abortion-free cities in the United States.

Linhardt, an anesthesiologist, has informed Operation Rescue’s sources that he has quit his abortion training and will not be doing abortions at all.

Means reached an agreement with her landlord, Foliage Development, not to follow through with plans to begin abortions at her current office. In exchange, a lawsuit and temporary restraining order filed against her to halt her abortion business has been put on hold. Thus far, she has not been able to locate a landlord in Wichita that will lease office space to her.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, who was listed in the suit as a potential witness for Mean’s landlord, led a large protest at her office, and exposed her checkered background that includes financial problems and previous disciplinary action levied against her by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts (KSBHA).

Previously, Operation Rescue was successful at preventing Nebraska’s infamous abortionist LeRoy Carhart from opening a late-term abortion business in Kansas after the closure of George Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services, where Carhart worked on a part-time basis.

Before that, Operation Rescue bought the building housing Wichita’s only other abortion clinic, Central Women’s Services, with the stipulation in the real estate contract that the abortion clinic would not be allowed to stay. This forced the abortion business to close. After documenting the horrific conditions found at the clinic upon taking possession of the building, Operation Rescue completely renovated the structure and it now serves as OR’s national headquarters and a memorial to the pre-born.

“We have worked long and hard through peaceful, legal means, using tactics developed over decades of pro-life experience to keep Wichita abortion-free. The rest of the pro-life movement should be encouraged that it is possible, with God’s grace, to drive abortionists out of their communities and keep them out,” said Newman.

Council Bluffs, Iowa – Pro-life supporters packed a Council Bluffs City Council meeting last night to voice opposition to the announced plans of late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart, who has said he wants to open up a late-term abortion mill there.

Carhart has been forced to seek other locations for his late-term abortion business after Nebraska passed a fetal pain bill that banned abortions after 20 weeks when the pre-born baby is believed to feel pain. Carhart is also interesting in taking over an existing abortion mills in Indiana, where he was worked part-time for years, and Maryland.

“Carhart is desperate to relocate his late-term abortion business, because that is the only way he can make money,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “Carhart is a notoriously poor businessman who seems to be in constant financial distress. He doesn’t have the money to open in Council Bluffs right now, and this strong show of community opposition will make it even harder for him to move there, if he ever were to get the money.”

Iowa Right to Life and other groups mobilized over 300 people to turn out to the meeting after rumors began to circulate that Carhart may have been interested in purchasing a city-owned lot for his proposed new Council Bluffs clinic.

The City Council voted to sell the property only with the condition that it not be used for an abortion clinic.

While Carhart continues to raise money for a Council Bluffs abortion mill, which he says is tentatively scheduled to open in January, Mayor Tom Hanafan told the crowd at last evening’s meeting that no one has approached the city for the needed permits for an abortion clinic.

During the meeting, Councilman Mike Shultz stated that the council had over the years tried to make the community a “positive place to work and live,” adding, “I think the council is unified on this. We’ll try to do what we can to prevent this type of activity.”

Lincoln, NE – Operation Rescue released the following statement, attributable to Troy Newman, on the signing of two groundbreaking abortions laws in Nebraska:

We are extremely happy that the Nebraska fetal pain bill has been signed into law, along with another that will require mental health screening for abortion patients. Beginning on October 15, these laws will essentially ban all abortions at 20 weeks and later, when it has been determined that pre-born babies can feel pain.

Last year, late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart threatened to reopen an abortion clinic in Kansas and continue post-viability abortions after the closure of Women’s Health Care Services. Our “Keep it Closed” campaign successfully prevented Carhart from coming back to Kansas where he had worked for over 10 years doing abortions on women in their latest stages of pregnancy, some just weeks or even days from their delivery dates.

It soon became clear that Carhart planned instead to conduct the late-term abortions at his existing clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska. (Operation Rescue later confirmed that Carhart has in fact been doing a small number of post-viability abortions in Nebraska, possibly as late as the thirtieth week of pregnancy.)

In response, Operation Rescue conducted an outreach in Nebraska last summer that garnered a great deal of publicity. During interviews generated by that event, Carhart boasted that Nebraska laws were lenient enough to allow him to conduct late-term abortions in that state.

Those statements caught the ear of Speaker Mike Flood, who sponsored the two groundbreaking bills aimed at preventing Carhart from conducting late-term abortions while providing new protections for pre-born babies. Because of that, we consider these new laws as fruit that sprung from Operation Rescue’s efforts to expose Carhart’s late-term abortions.

Operation Rescue extends its appreciation to Speaker Flood and to the wonderful folks at Nebraska Right to Life who stepped up to the plate and worked to insure the passage of these life-saving laws. They saw a need, and jumped in to meet it. For that, they are to be congratulated.

Meanwhile, complaints against Carhart, based on affidavits from former Carhart employees that were submitted by Operation Rescue, Nebraskans United for Life, and Rescue the Heartland, continue to progress. It is our prayer that one day soon there will be a peaceful end to Carhart’s entire abortion business.